character :: Kara of the Femme Fatale
When Kara landed on the doorsteps of the Femme Fatale encampment, she was a mere girl of around 11. They welcomed her with opened arms given her sad, sad story of fear and degradation – too bad it wasn’t true. At home, a devoted father and mother awaited the return of their runaway daughter. But, in the Badlands, there’s no return from what happens outside of the walls of one’s childhood. Kara had seen the suffering of others, and the idea of becoming a quiet woman of god did not feel right to her soul. She was born with a fight in her bones, and the only way she would ever be happy would be to unleash that fury. Even as she left, her father offered her a necklace of faith and protection: despite herself, Kara took it, hoping to never look back on her peaceful life of cowardice again.
It began with a love for her trainer, the Battle Mother of the Femme Fatale. She was a towering woman with muscles that bulged when she did simple things such as hold a spoon. She talked with a booming voice that carried unashamed in the wind, and with the love and dedication of a mother, she watched over her camp. Her underlings would cower in fear around her, afraid of yet another whack to the head or toss over the wall for doing wrong; but Kara lived for it. She yearned for the day that she didn’t miss a single thing during a practice battle, when she could hold her own axe.
you want, because
it won't come to you
without a fight.
Every Femme Fatale is issued a mighty battle axe when the time comes, and it’s a huge source of pride. It weighs 20 or more pounds, which doesn’t seem like a problem until a girl is expected to swing it around her body without losing grip or throwing a shoulder out. Kara trained with her standard-issue 5 pound affair every day, attempting to pick fights with the other underlings in order to build her arsenal. She earned little friends, but that’s how Kara wanted it – she craved respect, not comradery.
As Kara became a woman, she found herself walking comfortably in Kat’s shadow. Eventually, special tasks were asked of Kara; including breaking up inner-group cliques and searching for raiding camps for her girls to practice on. She greedily took every assignment, and her willingness to break any bond with team members in order to better the group won Kat over. Kara earned her battle axe the same way all of the girls did – a fight with Kat – in which she almost bested her master. Kara had never been so happy with that axe in her hands, once too heavy to hold and now at the young age of 19 it belonged to only her.
In this world, the world of dust, heat and ash however: happiness doesn’t linger for long. Kat was growing uneasy at an approaching group, bigger than any who had dared to move in on their territory before. For days, on a hill a mile away from the safety of their walls, Kat and Kara watched from their hiding spot as their numbers crested the Femme Fatale by twice again. If the group wanted to move in, it would be a serious fight and neither Kat nor Kara wanted that.
And so, the Femme Fatale began their training and Kat decided to make the first move. She invited the man who ran the group, the Helter Skelter, inside for a little chat on the condition that his men waited outside the walls in case of an attack. It was clear that he wanted what she had, and that their intentions were indeed dirty; but instead of shedding blood on both sides, the leaders decided a one on one battle would be best.
Kara watched Kat fight valiantly – again enamored by her leader’s resolve. The Helter Skelter was forced to disband and Gabriel White was forced to become a ward of the Femme Fatale, to do whatever Kat pleased. In humiliation, he even had to give Kat his prized battleaxe: Gristle. Kara knew from the start that this would turn out badly, and she begged her mentor to turn him away or kill her new toy. She was ignored, not out of abrasiveness but out of ignorance: and Kara’s worst nightmare came to realization. She caught them in the act.
fit into your world -
I'm here to make my own
Kat had shown weakness now, and suddenly the amazing mentor that had been the sun and the stars to her was just a mere woman. Weak, yielding, allowing herself to fall in love with that mudrat. Kara was devastated and she let Kat know just as well: she would tell the Femme Fatale and the clan would decide where to go from there. Before the clan could even band together for a meeting, however, Kat had made her decision: she would peacefully step down as leader of the Femme Fatale. She handed Gristle over to the woman who would be filling Kat’s mighty shoes.
Kara accepted Gristle with heaviness in her heart. She knew Gabriel was a dog, and Kat would come to regret leaving behind her empire for a mere man. But that was Kat’s mistake to make, not Kara’s. To add insult to injury, after Gabriel White did send the once mighty Kat into a downward spiral, Kara had to deal with his unruly son breaking into her camp to cause a ruckus and harass her women. She spent some years tightening up the loose ends that Kat might have made with her friendly nature: trimming some fat and getting her girls back to fighting order. Now, the Femme Fatale has nearly doubled in size, the walls expanding every day. The group can do whatever they want, going into the Badlands and taking what they need from any man who might have stolen the goods himself.
Kara is not without her own secrets, of course. Under her feathered headdress, the skull of a ram – lay thick and tangled black hair she refuses to cut. And, wrapped around the center of Gristle, hung on a notch made by some unlucky bastard’s skull – a set of hand-carved wooden beads with a small gold-inlaid cross is the constant reminder of a more peaceful time. If a woman were to watch Kara like a hawk, she might notice how Kara gathers supplies over the week in a parcel that gets dropped off god knows where, usually on a Sunday. Someday, Kara hopes, she can find a way to make her father and his new wife safe: especially now that times are growing darker once more.
Living here, in this place, a person can tell when a storm is brewing. For now, Kara is waiting – with Gabe growing of age, it might be time to join forces with an old enemy to fight a coming attack. If, god forbid, it comes to that of course.
